Footage of culture secretary Nadine Dorries struggling to defend Boris Johnson for making false claims about Keir Starmer has got everyone comparing the MP to a certain TV character.
The PM faced a huge backlash after he accused the Labour leader of failing to prosecute disgraced entertainer Jimmy Savile when he was head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Johnson made the false claims in the House of Commons on Monday following Labour’s criticism over the Sue Gray report into parties held in government during lockdown.
An extraordinary Channel 4 News interview with Dorries then went viral after presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy asked her why Johnson had spouted “fake news” and an “old meme repeated by conspiracy theorists” in his attack on Starmer.
Dorries repeatedly shook her head and rolled her eyes during the exchange, insisting: “I don’t know, I don’t know the details”, repeatedly saying “the prime minister tells the truth”.
For many viewers, it brought to mind Catherine Tate’s much-loved comedy character Lauren, a school girl whose catchphrase is “Am I bovvered?”
It didn’t take long for someone to get creative...
And here’s Catherine Tate as Lauren in action for anyone wanting to contrast and compare...
On Tuesday morning, a furious Keir Starmer slammed Boris Johnson for referencing Jimmy Saville and sinking parliament “into the gutter”.
The Labour leader branded the comment “a ridiculous slur peddled by right-wing trolls” in an interview with Sky News presenter Kay Burley.
A fact-check by the Reuters news agency in October last year concluded: “There is no evidence to suggest Sir Keir Starmer, then (director of public prosecutions) DPP of the CPS, was directly involved in the decision not to prosecute Jimmy Savile.”
It spells out how the claim gained traction online but that “the suggestion of a link between the handling of the cases and Starmer is baseless”.